Ramblings from Dwarka

Day 3: Shekdur (3300m) to Vishansar Lake (3600m) We woke up to cloudy skies, but thankfully no rain. We had a huge debate with the guides today. The questions were should we carry packed lunch with us. Ideally, we liked to have hot lunch. The guides promised us that we would be reaching Vishansar no later than 3PM and hence the team preferred to have lunch at the camp. After a breakfast of bread and omlette, we started off towards Vishansar. Since it was cloudy and drizzling, today I chose to put away my DSLR and shoot with iphone. I also started using my Garmin forerunner for route tracking. We started the day with a climb through forests of birch and cedar. Luckily it wasn't very steep. The route to Nichnai was looking very beautiful and walking here wasn't too tough We came across our first snow bridge for crossing the river Once we crossed the snow bridge, we realized that we had a treacherous climb on the mountain side. The path was less than a foo...

One thing I have learned in life so far is that almost all of us are crazy to some extent. This craziness is seen in many forms; we spend our entire adult life doing things we hate (and grumbling about it), we call it our work. There are some who carry out the charade of enjoying companies of those they hate (spouses, relatives etc.). Then there are those who pray to idols for divine intervention(now you know about about my spiritual leanings). Crazier are still some of us. We get up at 4:30 AM to run 20Kms. Spend a crazy long time sitting in the cold lugging heavy cameras to photograph a tiny butterfly, an elusive bird or a tiger. Sit in extremely uncomfortable stadium in 35+ deg sun watching equally crazy idiots play with a small hard ball. Our team above shared the crazy joy(!) of climbing up rocks and mountains, living in uncomfortable tents and walking long distance in remote, cold mountains. This is a blog of our crazy adventure in the Kashmir Himalayas. Our team ...